Our Survivors Get Real About Sex Trafficking Panel featuring members of our Survivors' Council and moderated by @petrosky_miguel is starting now. Follow the conversation here

Survivor and advocate Barbara on who is being trafficked: "Trafficking is about vulnerability and being exploited. We're all vulnerable at some point in our lives and some populations are more vulnerable, but that's what traffickers prey upon, our vulnerabilities."

Survivor and advocate Citlali on who is a trafficker: "It can any type of person. There's not a set of one type of trafficker, especially now with social media."

"It's a process," survivor and advocate Katrina says about how children are trafficked. "It's not that we snatched a child off the street, and now she's on the internet. It's much more complex than that."

Why don't sex trafficking victims just leave? "Victims form a bond with the trafficker," Barbara explains. "This is what it's all about. It's not about handcuffs and being thrown in a van...I didn't even realize I was a victim."

"I used to ask myself that all the time," Citlali adds. "It's taken a lot of time for me to realize that in my mind at that moment, I told myself that I could never survive on my own."

"The fear of staying has to become greater than the fear of leaving," Katrina says. "But before then, it's the fear of leaving that's greater than the fear of staying."

The panel on recent viral conspiracy theories: "These stories online feed into these crazy ideas, you forget that there are kids out there...If you think that it only happens in Hollywood, you're missing the bigger picture."

"At this point, there's a lot of unlearning that has to happen in order for people to understand what trafficking looks like. But the reality is, how do you reach everyone?"

The panelist suggest, in this moment, individuals who want to help raise awareness of sex trafficking should educate themselves and reach out to organizations that have been working on this issue.

Katrina on where trafficking happens in the U.S.: "I don't care where you are in the country, this is going on in your backyard. This is not a conversation of something that's happening way over there."

In working with victims of trafficking, the most important thing the panel says is to make that person feel like a fellow human being: Ask them how their day was. Ask them what makes them happy. Show them genuine compassion.

Thanks to everyone who attended the panel and followed along on social media. Visit our site to learn more about our work and sex trafficking in the U.S.: https://www.ecpatusa.org/ .